Urth Net
Traffic Jammin'
↰ answers Nicholas Gevers
· by quotation
9 quoted lines
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Nicholas=20Gevers?= <vermoulian at yahoo.com> Subject: Posthumous corn Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2000 10:24:15 -0800 (PST)
On the traffic jam stories in ST: I remember Wolfe
saying in his original note on "Bluesberry Jam" in
SPACE OPERA that an actual incident involving a
protracted traffic jam inspired the story. And re the
"Hey, I'm dead!" cliche in "Ain't You 'Most Done?":
Wolfe has done this rather often, but as a conclusion
to the collection, it has a usefully redemptive
significance after much preceding gloom: Benson seems Heavenbound.
I remember reading a story in "Omni Magazine" circa 1978 or 1979 about an extended traffic jam. At the end, helicopters bearing concrete show up and literally pave over the jammed cars and people, making a nice new highway. To me, this was the penultimate traffic jam story. I can't place the author, but it was the story that immediately came to my mind upon reading the usually-quite-original Wolfe story premise in ST. Anyone else out there who can place the author and title?